Ascension is a really good science fiction epic. It's got strong characters, lots of atmosphere, and some really visionary ideas. So why am I giving it 1/10 and STRONGLY recommending you give it a miss? See below.
The premise is classic: to examine the weird culture that evolves on board a sub-light starship, halfway through a 100-year journey to Proxima Centauri. By now, everyone on board has been born in space, and Earth has become just a distant memory. The kicker (an early reveal, so not really a spoiler) is that the ship left Earth at the end of the 1950s. Now it's a frozen slice of that rather tense culture.
The characters are superbly-drawn. The brick-jawed Captain, for example, turns out to be a weak, desperate man. And he knows it. (He comments that the first captain and the last will be remembered as heroes; he, the 'middle' captain, is doomed to be forgotten.) The visual design is equally good. Not too much can be said about the story, without giving things away, but suffice to say there are some big revelations, and the writers have been willing to let major characters come and go and change. In short, this is high-grade cerebral SF, of the sort we rarely see on TV or in movies.
So why am I warning you NOT to watch? One word: SyFy. The network that hates science fiction so bad they don't even know how to spell it. The network that will ALWAYS steal your valuable time and let you down in the end.
Ascension makes the THIRD time they've shafted me. First, there was Stargate: Universe. SyFy killed this superb show in midstream, leaving a strong story arc on a never-to-be-resolved cliffhanger. Then there was Alphas, an unusually gritty, credible 'superhero' series. SyFy dropped it after two seasons, again, on an agonizing cliffhanger. Now we have Ascension. And here's my **spoiler**: IT TOO IS NOT A COMPLETE STORY! None of its main story arcs is resolved, and new ones are begun just as the series STOPS COLD.
Worse, unlike SGU and Alphas, Ascension was actually PLANNED this way. The series was deliberately written, filmed and aired without a proper ending, IN FULL KNOWLEDGE that a sequel was highly unlikely. This is beyond despicable. It's just not that difficult to write an ending that will hold up on its own, while leaving room for a sequel. There's NO GOOD REASON to leave your audience hanging!
After Ascension, my disgust with SyFy is truly cosmic. I wish I could sue for the value of my wasted time. Better yet, I wish every executive at this network could be sentenced to have someone come in and interrupt every movie or TV show they ever watch, for the rest of their miserable lives. For them, it should be "Luke: I am your... (click)." Charlton Heston should be riding down the beach, and suddenly, sticking out of the sand he sees... (click). Dave Bowman's last message to Earth should be "Oh, my God: it's full of... (click)."
It's a real crying shame, because Ascension (like SGU and Alphas) is full of great ideas and engrossing drama. All wasted. IF AND ONLY IF SyFy pulls its finger out and runs a further series, you MIGHT risk watching Ascension. But even then, it would be a good idea to first wait and see if anyone complains that the SECOND series also ends on a
The premise is classic: to examine the weird culture that evolves on board a sub-light starship, halfway through a 100-year journey to Proxima Centauri. By now, everyone on board has been born in space, and Earth has become just a distant memory. The kicker (an early reveal, so not really a spoiler) is that the ship left Earth at the end of the 1950s. Now it's a frozen slice of that rather tense culture.
The characters are superbly-drawn. The brick-jawed Captain, for example, turns out to be a weak, desperate man. And he knows it. (He comments that the first captain and the last will be remembered as heroes; he, the 'middle' captain, is doomed to be forgotten.) The visual design is equally good. Not too much can be said about the story, without giving things away, but suffice to say there are some big revelations, and the writers have been willing to let major characters come and go and change. In short, this is high-grade cerebral SF, of the sort we rarely see on TV or in movies.
So why am I warning you NOT to watch? One word: SyFy. The network that hates science fiction so bad they don't even know how to spell it. The network that will ALWAYS steal your valuable time and let you down in the end.
Ascension makes the THIRD time they've shafted me. First, there was Stargate: Universe. SyFy killed this superb show in midstream, leaving a strong story arc on a never-to-be-resolved cliffhanger. Then there was Alphas, an unusually gritty, credible 'superhero' series. SyFy dropped it after two seasons, again, on an agonizing cliffhanger. Now we have Ascension. And here's my **spoiler**: IT TOO IS NOT A COMPLETE STORY! None of its main story arcs is resolved, and new ones are begun just as the series STOPS COLD.
Worse, unlike SGU and Alphas, Ascension was actually PLANNED this way. The series was deliberately written, filmed and aired without a proper ending, IN FULL KNOWLEDGE that a sequel was highly unlikely. This is beyond despicable. It's just not that difficult to write an ending that will hold up on its own, while leaving room for a sequel. There's NO GOOD REASON to leave your audience hanging!
After Ascension, my disgust with SyFy is truly cosmic. I wish I could sue for the value of my wasted time. Better yet, I wish every executive at this network could be sentenced to have someone come in and interrupt every movie or TV show they ever watch, for the rest of their miserable lives. For them, it should be "Luke: I am your... (click)." Charlton Heston should be riding down the beach, and suddenly, sticking out of the sand he sees... (click). Dave Bowman's last message to Earth should be "Oh, my God: it's full of... (click)."
It's a real crying shame, because Ascension (like SGU and Alphas) is full of great ideas and engrossing drama. All wasted. IF AND ONLY IF SyFy pulls its finger out and runs a further series, you MIGHT risk watching Ascension. But even then, it would be a good idea to first wait and see if anyone complains that the SECOND series also ends on a